A Comparison of Interteaching and the Learning Pathway in a Community Health Undergraduate Course

Abstract

Interteaching (IT) is a teaching method based on behavior analytic techniques that uses paired discussion and student-informed clarifying lectures to teach course objectives. A number of studies suggest that IT is more effective than traditional teaching methods (i.e., lecture). However, research is needed to compare IT to other active learning strategies (i.e., strategies that foster critical thinking by engaging students in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation through discussion and active student responding). In the present study, I compared IT to an active learning strategy known as the Learning Pathway (LP) in an undergraduate community health and development course. The LP uses group work and guided self-instruction to help students address a societal issue of their choice. Results indicate that students performed slightly higher on multiple-choice quizzes during the IT condition and correctly answered more fill-in-the-blank midterm and final exam questions related to content covered in the IT condition. However, students indicated that they preferred the LP teaching method.